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The Incredible Hulk Coaster
The Incredible Hulk Coaster is a launched roller coaster located in the Marvel Super Hero Island area of Islands of Adventure. The ride is themed to the Marvel character Hulk, specifically around an experience of the potential effects from a rampage caused by the character. The ride opened with the park on May 28, 1999, but received a major refurbishment in 2015 and reopened the following year with new track pieces, onboard music, and a different storyline, though the ride experience is generally the same. History Having secured a license for the characters of Marvel after failing to do so with DC Comics, many plans for the new park had to be changed in order to fit the theme. A roller coaster had initially been planned for the proposed DC Comics world, but it was supposed to be a dueling coaster themed around Batman and The Penguin. These plans fell through, but the dueling coaster aspect would later be reused for the now closed Dueling Dragons/''Dragon Challenge''. It was later decided that The Incredible Hulk was a good character to be the basis of a thrill ride in the Marvel area. The Incredible Hulk Coaster was then constructed, and opened with the rest of Islands of Adventure on May 28, 1999. On September 8, 2015, the coaster temporarily closed for a refurbishment, which replaced the tracks of the coaster, added a new storyline and free lockers nearby for loose articles, and onboard music composed by Fall Out Boy member Patrick Stump. The refurbished version of the ride opened on August 4, 2016. Background Original Ride The original ride featured guests participating in helping Dr. Bruce Banner find a cure for the Hulk, a monstrous muscular being with green skin that Banner becomes when angered. As is usually the case with theme park rides, something goes wrong, and the guests find themselves right in the middle of the Hulk's destructive behavior, as they travel through multiple inversions after being launched from an upward-facing tunnel near the boarding station. 2016 Refurbishment The 2016 update to the ride added metal detectors to the queue line to prevent guests from losing any loose articles. If found carrying any loose articles, they are directed to the nearby lockers located across from the ride's entrance. The lockers are free of charge, much like those near Hollywood Rip Ride Rock-It next door at Universal Studios Florida. The updated ride features new queue scenery, and a new storyline in which major Hulk antagonist General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross is recruiting guests for an experiment to create Hulk-like soldiers through the use of gamma radiation, similar to the accident that affected Bruce Banner. The ride experience is the same, but now features a slightly different launch sequence, and a musical score being played throughout the ride. Trivia * Strangely, Bruce Banner is not featured anywhere in the storyline of the updated attraction. Instead, the ride is now themed to guests becoming alternate versions of the Hulk. ** This is odd, as Universal usually themes their rides around letting guests be part of the action alongside their favorite characters. * A statue of the Hulk can be found at the entrance of the ride, holding a ride car taken from a track structure. The piece of track is reused from the previous version of the ride prior to its refurbishment. * The Incredible Hulk is the only character with a themed ride in Marvel Super Hero Island that does not perform meet-and-greets with guests. This is most likely due to the character's large size, making it nearly impossible to properly represent the character with basic actors. ** However, the characters of the ''Transformers ''franchise are much taller than the average human, yet still scaled down from their usual giant size. Similar technology used for the Transformers could also be put to good use for Hulk, whose size is a far more accurate representation of the character in comparison to the Transformers. ** It's also worth mentioning that Hulk may not be a meet-and-greet character due to the nature of the character. Although usually depicted as a superhero, he is actually an anti-hero, since he usually doesn't have concern over who or what he attacks. Category:Roller Coasters Category:Marvel Super Hero Island Category:Marvel Comics Category:Islands of Adventure Category:Thrill Rides Category:Opening Day Attractions Category:Current Attractions Category:Indoor Attractions Category:Dark Rides